Farewell Yugoslavia as Serbs create a new country

By VESNA PERIC ZIMONJIC in BELGRADE

Quietly and without tears, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the last remnant of the era of former President Slobodan Milosevic, has been consigned to the history books.

Like many Serbs, I woke up to find myself living in a third country in just 12 years, without even moving house.

A place with a strange official name, State Community of Serbia and Montenegro, replaced Yugoslavia after its sister republics voted this week in favour of dissolving the federation.

Milosevic created the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992. It was an attempt to keep together what was left of the former six-member Yugoslav federation that fell apart in 1991, with wars in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. Macedonia was the only country to escape bloodshed.

Some remember the former Yugoslavia with nostalgia, as a time of peace, good life and free travel to the West. But for many Serbs, Milosevic's federation meant wars, poverty, bombing and long queues for visas in front of the Western embassies.

"It is high time Milosevic's Yugoslavia died," said Milutin Stefanovic, who owns a car repair workshop in Belgrade.

"There are no tears, no sorrow as it becomes history."

Serbia and Montenegro will now have wide autonomy for three years. After that, they can organise referendums for independence.

It will be a civilised divorce, wanted by many people on both sides.

"I was born in one state, spent a better part of my life in another and I want to see an independent Serbia in the future," said Natasa Vasovic, an office worker.

The new state has a Constitutional Charter, created over 10 months of negotiations between Serbia and Montenegro, under the auspices of the European Union. It provides for a democratic infrastructure that will lead to EU membership, say senior politicians.

The united Serbia and Montenegro will have a common foreign and defence policy.

The army will be reduced to an appropriate force, capable of joining Nato's Partnership for Peace Programme.

The two republics will keep their separate currencies, which are the dinar in Serbia and euro in Montenegro.

The new 120-member parliament of the union will be composed of MPs already sitting in the parliaments of two republics. It will be their job to elect a new president to replace Federal President Vojislav Kostunica within a month - without the vote-rigging or mass protests that marked Milosevic's era.

On the last day of the old Yugoslavia, I walked home from the federal parliament, where I had been watching the dissolution ceremonies. I was not at all nostalgic for the former republic.

My mind instead went back to October 5, 2000, when anti-Milosevic protesters set the parliament building on fire.

For me, that day was more historic than the creation of a loose union of Serbia and Montenegro.

- INDEPENDENT